The Kremlin finds it “strange” that Kiev mentions Putin’s use of doubles
Screenshot from a video released by the Russian Presidential Press Office on April 18, 2023, showing Vladimir Putin visiting the headquarters of the Dnieper Military Group in Kherson Oblast, which is partially controlled by Russian forces. HANDOUT / AFP
The Kremlin has not spared criticism of the statements made by Oleksi Danilov, Secretary of Ukraine’s National Security Council. The latter said on Wednesday evening that the Kremlin master’s visit to the occupied part of Kherson Oblast was staged and said it was actually a double of the Russian leader who had been shown in the media. “There was no Putin,” he said on television. “He was a double, that’s well known,” the official added.
“All I can say is that these comments are strange, to say the least,” Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in response to the Ukrainian comments. According to the Kremlin, a few days ago the Russian president visited the areas occupied by the Russian army in Ukraine’s Kherson and Luhansk oblasts, his second trip to the conflict zone after the one in Mariupol in March. He remained at military headquarters without approaching the front line or meeting soldiers or civilians.
According to political scientist Valery Solovei, interviewed by a journalist of the opponent’s YouTube channel Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Putin has two doubles, and one of them went to Kherson. “The president would never go that far in his life and be in such a dangerous place, even if he were 150 kilometers from the front,” he said. He adds that when Putin sends doubles to events, people like Nikolai Patrushev (head of the Security Council) don’t bother to show up. And to add that Evgueni Prigojine would not have gone to the meeting with the President, since he would probably have learned that it was a double who made the trip.
Rumors about the use of doubles by the Russian president have been circulating for years, as have rumors about his state of health. They feed off his very rare public appearances since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Russian head of state is still living under a strict health regime.
At the Davos Economic Forum, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy even mentioned the possibility that Mr. Putin was dead and that a double had replaced him. “I can’t tell if he’s really alive, if he’s the one making the decisions or someone else,” he said.
In February 2020, Mr Putin said he opposed his security services using look-alikes to ensure his security in the 2000s when Russia faced attacks. Since the Covid-19 pandemic, he has mostly appeared on television and participated in video conferences alone in his office. From then on, on each of his trips, Internet users analyze videos and photos in detail to find out whether it is the Russian president or a double.